International Arbitration

The history of the race whether considered as one of individuals or as nations has been one of struggle. Did one individual fancy another had done him a wrong, he proceeded to right that wrong himself by the exercise of force. From the day when Cain killed his brother Abel, for many centuries contests between individuals were settled, not as justice dictated, but by brute force. The result was a disorderly condition of society unfavorable to peaceful conditions. In the evolution of the race, when men differed, instead of attempting to settle their differences by force, tribunals were brought into being for that purpose and as the result of this process courts were established for the purpose of administering justice between disputants. So successfully has this worked that no intelligent community exists without its courts, and no man or woman of a high degree of intelligence any longer thinks of resorting to physical force for the purpose of righting a real or fancied wrong. This growth has been so helpful, lawyers are inclined to adopt the words of a distinguished member of the American Bar Association when he declared: The crowning triumph of our present civilization is in the successful establishment and maintenance of our existing courts of justice. It is the perfection of these that makes property possible and life worth living. It is the existence of these and the respect paid to them by the community that makes social life and the perpetuation of social institutions practical. It is to our courts of justice more than to any other institution of modern civilization that we owe all that lifts modern man above the barbarity of his primitive ancestors